Hot on the heels of Easkey Britton’s super inspiring TEDx Dublin talk on the transformative power of surfing, another friend of Cooler, Kim Woozy founder of MAHFIA Productions has stepped up and talked some serious sense about women and action sports at TEDx San Diego. (Side point: Like Easkey, Kim is so damn composed and awesome at public speaking, am I the only one whose hands would be shaking like the San Andreas fault during the big one!?)

You can watch the full talk below, but here are our favourite nuggets:

– “I prefer the term possibility model to role model, young people especially need this to spark their inspiration which in turn ignites the motivation”

– “how celeb culture has taken over almost every media outlet, it’s everywhere we turn…and it’s even harder for teenage girls to ignore this…they’re bombarded with stereotypes of what they should look like and be”

– “girls need more realistic inspiration, most of us aren’t born with an amazing voice, model like looks or famous parents but all of us can find something we like, work hard at it and find success and happiness that way”

– “if you don’t have a passion you don’t have an identity, young girls are [then] really susceptible to peer pressure”

– the redemptive power of sport in relation to body image

– vox pops by pro skaters Mimi Knoop andLizzie Armanto on how skateboarding has changed their lives

– “how we need to increase participation in these sports and not just views”

– “how we need to encourage girls to pick up their board and ride it and not just sit on the side and try and pick up guys”

– “how majority of ads are created by and for males, all too often you see images of girls just holding their board not riding, or a half naked model, that does not inspire girls to want to participate…just makes them stress about their looks more and want to admire the boys”

– research shows sex only sells sex not sport [as we discuss here]

– “females existing only as props doesn’t do anyone any favours”

– “the solution is simple advertise females as real people, show them in action, show their personalities. IRL women are complex beings we’re not flawless airbrushed props so if the marketing reflects this it will work”

– babies and the awesomeness that is Super Mum Vera Janssen 

Watch Kim’s full talk here:

And for more MAHFIA love head here